


Memento Mori

by glimmerFae (verfens)



Series: The Skeletons In Our Closets [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 05:37:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7672183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verfens/pseuds/glimmerFae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack had come to Zurich to try and address how Overwatch was falling apart with Gabriel, figure out how to make a joint response to the various forces bringing them down.  What he didn't expect was for Gabriel to become one of those forces, to try and drag him down to hell, after everything they'd been through together.</p><p>Unfortunately, Jack wasn't ever one to remember to die.  Even in the fading glory that was Overwatch and their relationship, he couldn't find the will in him to give up his fight.  And so he soldiers on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento Mori

**Author's Note:**

> My take on the explosion in Switzerland. This be read in conjunction with my other fics, but it is just as easily read alone. Enjoy!!

" _Jack, I need to talk with you about some things. Call me back, okay? I'm going to be in Switzerland tomorrow, and I think its time we settle some things."_

Truth be told, ever since the leaks had started, it had put so much strain on Jack's life that he was sort of glad that Gabriel had been the one to end it. That didn't mean he didn't want to be with him, of course not. It was just so stressful dealing with everything.

"MEN OR MONSTERS? WHAT ARE THE SUPER SOLDIERS OF OVERWATCH?" Had been the headline of the newspaper that day, and it had outlined more of the leaks. Jack only grimaced at the photo of him and Gabriel, covered in blood and hanging onto each other as they literally pulled an omnic apart with their bare hands. They hadn't minded their unnatural strength when it had been that time of crisis, and it wasn't like the US government could just…take it back now that the conflict was over.

He was just a man. Certainly, he had done things in the past when he was at war that might not seem normal, but he did all the same things as normal people. And this shmear campaign had taken so many lives of good people on his side, and ruined others. So when Jack Morrison went to the base in Zurich, he thought it would be him and Gabe meeting to reconcile their differences and to figure out how they can respond to this- because they had to respond as a group, or they would all fall and everything they'd done together would amount to nothing. Overwatch would be dragged to hell, and for what? For the UN's bureaucracy to survive unscathed? Because that was who was getting off the hook here- for all the things released about Jack and Gabriel and their respective employees, there wasn't so much as a _peep_ about how the UN was the one giving all of their orders.

So of course he went. Sure, Gabriel had cut off on friendship stuff but so had Jack, it was a natural response to their break up, honestly. Even though his heart still ached, Jack was glad that Gabe had been the one to reach out to him. They had to grow up at some point because they'd have to find out how to regroup to the public and salvage their reputations.

And Jack had a long list of things he needed to say to Gabriel. Things he'd never had the time or the will to say before, but things he wouldn't feel complete if he didn't say.

He had to tell him about his true childhood, his abusive father and how Gabriel and his family had done so much to help him heal, how much he regretted ever letting them force the position on him because he was the white man and a better poster boy. He had to say how much he loved him, how much he missed him. And he had to tell him just how much he needed Gabriel. Even though they had broken up, and even though Jack knew it was as much his fault as Gabriel's, he loved the man too much to let it end like that.

That was why Jack went to the building, and why he walked over to Gabriel in the dining hall that night, the base relatively quiet because so many of their ranks were struggling with the cracking down of the public and the UN.

"Gabriel!" Jack called, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he finally recognized the man sitting on a table in the dining hall. Familiar brown eyes found his, and Jack felt a little uneasy as he looked at him. Something felt off. "Hey. Glad one of us finally decided to step up and call the other. Seems fitting it's you- you were always the more mature…" He attempted to joke, but there was nothing in Gabriel's face telling him that his ex was joking.

"Look, I'm sorry. For a lot of things. It's all a bit of a mess now, isn't it?" He mumbled, looking away, wondering why this felt so wrong, so strange. "We should find out who the leak is. We're kinda getting dragged through the mud, and good people are being cut down left and right."

Gabriel stood up from his spot on the table, and walked over. His fists raised up in a familiar battle stance, and Jack raised an eyebrow at him.

"A spar? Really?" Jack asked with an eyeroll. "Typical. Fight it out rather than talk it out. I get it. Go easy, alright? I'm a bit overworked. You are too." But he took his stance, taking the first blow Gabriel threw at him, grunting a bit as it hit his arm a bit roughly.

"Hey, I said take it easy." Jack muttered. "I know you're stressed out, but I am too. We have a lot to talk about. I have a lot I need to say." The list rested heavily in his pocket, but if this was Gabriel's way of going through his problems, far be it from Jack to deny him.

There were no words, just Gabriel looking at him with brown eyes in cold, calculating focus, and Jack felt a shiver run down his spine before his legs were taken out from underneath him by a sharp kick to his left ankle, and he rolled out of the way of the kick that followed immediately after.

"Gabe!" Jack yelled in shock as he pulled himself back up, Gabriel not coming closer as he stood, his ankle pounding now- damn it, it felt _broken_. "What the _fuck_? I thought you wanted to _talk_. I understand that you're a bit mad at me for a few things, but _Gabe_ , I," he stammered, before Gabriel's bitter laughter cut him off.

"I'm more than a bit 'mad', Jack." Gabriel finally spoke up, and the feelings of utter _wrongness_ were back, crawling up and down his skin as his gut shouted at him to get out of there. "And it's really too late to talk it out."

Jack had brushed the way that Gabriel's aggression rolled off of his shoulders in waves off at first as just a spar, a way to blow off some steam. But as Gabriel ran towards him and Jack could really only hold up his arms to defend himself, he was sharply reminded of the fact that he's in no shape to actually fight.

But would Gabriel actually do this?  Gabriel had always sparred intensely- surely, _surely._ Surely this wasn't... serious.  Surely Gabriel was just trying to take out some steam on Jack.  They had broken up, but they had known each other- been friends, _lovers,_ for over 20 years.  Surely that meant more than a minor disagreement. 

_“Don’t you look professional?” Jack had come over to him, gently brushing off his shoulder pads as a poor excuse to rub Gabriel’s muscles in his work uniform.  “Commander of Overwatch. It sounds like hell of a job, Gabe.”_

_“With you watching my back, I’m certain nothing can go wrong.” Gabriel had kissed Jack, his partner and lover being the other super-soldier who had accepted the position in the UN initiative to combat the Omnic Crisis._ Nothing could go wrong.  They always had each other's back.  Right?

His lingering doubts were cast to the side when Jack was suddenly tossed away like a doll by the punch to his face, having been feinted into thinking the blow was going to his stomach, and he looked up to see Gabriel holding a gun over him, brown eyes cold and unfeeling and wrong, so very wrong.

"G-Gabriel?" He stuttered, blue eyes wide as he stared down the barrel of a gun he'd never thought would have turned on him, not in a million years. "What are you…?"

And suddenly Jack was the weak little boy again, too thin, wearing his mother's clothes because there wasn't anything else in the small broken house in Indiana, and getting punched in the face because his father accused him of being a queer, staring up at his father in utter terror.

Brown eyes showed Gabriel falter. The gun was lowered.

"This is all _your_ fault." Despite the brief second of hesitation, Gabriel's voice was harsh, cold above him. There was a deafening blow, and intense pain burst in his midsection as Jack screamed in agony. It had turned deadly. Gabriel had actually shot him in the stomach.

"I-I, I didn't, I didn't mean it." Jack sobbed in pain, gripping at his bleeding midsection. "I, I, Gabriel, I was _ordered_ to take the spot. I, I knew you were better qualified for it, but they didn't _listen_ to me Gabe, _Gabe_ , you have to listen to me, _please_. _I_ -."

"On your feet, _Strike-Commander_ _Morrison_." Gabriel's harsh voice stopped his pleas, and Jack was yanked upright by a hand in his hair, his feet dangling underneath him before Gabriel thrust him backwards, into the wall. "Don't go giving me that shit now. You have no one to blame but yourself, since _you_ did this to yourself." It was an accidental parallel, but a parallel nonetheless. Gabe, a man he had once been on the road to marry had sneered at him and punched him in the gut, almost exactly where he'd shot him only seconds before. His father, kicking the boy that had tried to fight back and stop him from hurting momma, as Jack collapsed once again, feeling the boot hit his spine.

As he lay there on the ground, mind and body reeling from the injuries, Jack saw the pipe in his face, and he knew he had his chance. He punched it and broke it, steam suddenly flying up in his and Gabriel's face, giving Jack the time he needed to roll away and _run_.

"JACK! _Get back here_!"

The voices of his father and Reyes overlapped, his father a looming figure just as Reyes was now, the way his boots hit the ground and drowned out the noise of his pounding heart, striking fear into his soul. His small legs hadn't been able to run fast, and though he knew he could run faster now, Reyes was moving quicker than him with his broken ankle.

There was a blast, and the two of them were knocked to the ground. It felt like it had come from closer to the entrance. Fuck. He was trapped in here now. Gabriel looked similarly surprised, but instead of fear, he looked annoyed. "It's started too early." His voice was a cool murmur as Jack struggled to stand again, taking his time to leisurely walk over to him. "Looks like I'll have to finish you _quickly_."

There was another blast, and this time Jack was able to stay upright by desperately hanging onto the rail of the stairs as Gabriel faltered, and it gave him another second to run. He had to try and ditch Gabriel, get out. The building was being blown up. He didn't have much time.

He saw the open flames in the distance, and coughed at the smoke, his eyes watering, but he had to try and get out. The main entrance was blocked off now, but the sleeping quarters had an emergency exit in it. He turned right, headed to his private quarters. If he could get there, and then get his gun, he'd be able to defend himself better.

He wasn't able to run very fast, but Gabriel seemed to be enjoying playing with his food too much, even though he had to allegedly do this 'quickly'. His boots followed in the distance with a cool, self-assured laugh. _He's letting me run_ , his mind filled in the blanks. _He's enjoying watching me suffer._

There was another blast from the hallway with the emergency exit, and burning shrapnel and debris being blown back at him sent him spiraling backwards, into a room- whose, he didn't know. He wasn't looking. He shrieked in sudden burning pain as a piece of metal shrapnel hit his injured stomach as he went down. He burned his hands as he forced it off of him, and he shuddered against the blinding pain as he threw off his melting leather gloves. That had cauterized the bullet wound, at least, he thought absently amongst all the agony.

He stood, his whole body shaking, feeling dizzy and his breathing coming harder as the smoke filled his lungs, the heat suffocating- or was that the smoke as well? He looked around, noting that he'd been in Jesse's room.

He watched as flames began to devour that framed painting of his mother and father, Jesse's belongings going up in smoke. It wasn't the only things that were burning. This place housed all of Gerard's belongings in storage, and so many other precious memories. Gabriel was destroying them all. And for what- a petty vendetta? Jack didn't have time to dwell on that though. He was almost to his room, his gun was underneath his bed, and so he began to walk, passing his friends rooms, seeing the music box that Mei- the missing, presumed dead climatologist- had given Angela for her 28th birthday. There was a room that had already had its ceiling collapsed. Jack felt bile in his throat as he saw the hand sticking out from it, lifeless.

His mother's hand, cold and small and frail in death. She'd been killed by his father's unwillingness to seek proper medical care for her flu, which had lead to pneumonia, which had killed her in the end.  She had begged him to stay, and so Jack had.  He had stayed with his father even though it had pained him and lead him to complete disarray and sorrow and hardened his heart and had left him so, so weak inside but unable to ask for help.  

He stepped on a picture frame, the glass breaking and making him look down at it, and he sobbed as he realized it was from Ana's room, which was also up in flames. Jack bent down to pick it up, blood in his eyes- Gabriel's punch had broken the skin above his eyes. He wiped at it, looking at the photo with a sob caught in his throat. It was him and Gabe, holding up a 3 year old Fareeha. Back when they'd all started fighting, and when him and Gabriel had first started dating.  He'd wanted to be a father, once upon a time.  It was clear that with work, they'd never be able to, but...

The sight of how in love he looked with Gabriel and Fareeha sleeping on him, how happy he looked, made the tears he'd been holding in come out. When had they fallen so far apart that he didn't notice this? This…attack, this anger at him? When had he let Gabriel go? How had they fallen so far from what they once were? When had they stopped being able to talk?

Jack wasn't able to move, frozen in time as he stared into his own eyes, wondering when he stopped being able to feel that happiness, that love. He was frozen in how utterly defeated he was. He had come to say that he still needed him. And Jack was frozen in a room while his friends things burned around him, Gabriel slowly coming to get him, feeling no rush to kill him.

_“Ah, Sergeant Reyes!” A spry young soldier helped him stand as the treatment took the stuffing out of him, the man having a sort of boyish charm to him, all happiness and warm youth, a headfull of bright blonde hair that made him look like some sort of cosplayer of Captain America._

_“Private Morrison.” Gabriel rolled his eyes, refusing to admit his weakness. “I am alright, and you’re supposed to be getting your injections.”_

_“And you’re my commanding officer, but I see that you’re having some trouble standing. So, if you want to wait for me to get out of the injections…? And we can go watch movies or something while we sleep it off.”_

_Gabriel had grinned at this, rolling his eyes. “Fine, I’ll hold your hand while you get the injections.”_

_Jack had looked so flustered. It was actually a little cute. He was apparently terrified of needles, and ever since the first time the two were paired and Gabriel had offered him a hand to deal with the pain and fear, he always managed to track down Gabriel._

_After the injections that time though, drunk on the pain medication and each other’s presence, the two had kissed, pressing on the boundaries of their work relationship and their newfound feelings._

Gabriel was his everything- he had been for so long. Didn't Gabriel know that? That he loved him with his whole heart? He'd stayed away because he thought Gabriel needed the space, because he didn't know what to say anymore. When had all his words started being new ammo for Gabriel to fire at him?  When had Jack stopped being able to reach him?

He took out his list from his pocket, and read it again. " _I love you. I miss you. I need you_." The words echoed in his heart, reverberating with mourning and a sense of finality. The fire still burnt around him, but he…what was the point? The public hated him now, hated _Overwatch_ now. The very same thing that he and Gabriel had created hand in hand, as they went from fiancés to hardly friends, to whatever this was. This building was its symbol, _their_ symbol.

He had run with such desperation, but now he felt nothing but futility, since his stubbornness refused to let him even understand that perhaps this was a kindness. He felt cold resentment at his own _vanity_ in his refusal to give in to Gabriel, his willingness to uphold that image of strength even though he'd come to come clean.

When had his image become more important to him than his and Gabriel's failing love?

He felt himself get shoved to the ground, the air taken out from him with another blast from the hallway. But when he looked in front of him, he felt a surge of hope rush through him, reminding him that there was still a chance to get out, he didn't want to die here. Yes, it would be incredibly befitting, but something within him shouted at that negativity and stoutly refused to give in to it. His stubborn streak was always a strong fighter against his depression, his Momma's voice telling him to hold on and be strong for both of them, _live_ for both of them. Jack was now in range of his gun, he reached out for it, and pulled it underneath him, hiding it as he heard Gabriel's slow, steady footsteps approach him, hearing the clicking noises of Gabe putting in a new round in his gun. Just one. That was all he thought he needed.

"You don't deserve what you were given." Reyes growled at him as he used his foot to turn Jack over, Jack taking in another deep breath in preparation. " _Weakling_. Look at me when I kill you. Look at me so that you know that I was the better _choice_ all along. That I was the better _soldier_ all along, Jack."

But once he was turned over, Jack opened fire at Gabriel, making the man shriek in pain, jumping back and giving Jack the fair chance to finally fight back. He stood, his body wracked with its injuries, breathing hard. His strike commander coat was practically useless now, just extra weight that was making him slower.

As he went to remove the coat so that he could fight easier, he noticed that his fist was still lightly clenched around the list. The neatly written down note of all the things he wanted to say to Gabriel was still in his hand, and his eyes flitted to it, his own bright red blood covering it, making it nearly illegible. He had come to apologize, and look how great that turned out. He had come to come clean, and look how that had turned out. So he dropped it on purpose, along with his coat. He couldn't be dragged down physically or mentally if he wanted to live.

And Jack Morrison wanted to _live_. He had to. For his Momma. For himself. For Overwatch. His heart pounded and his rage-boiled blood rushed through his head with the mad desperation to survive, he wouldn't let things end here. He couldn't let things end here. He had to know what had happened. He had to know what had gone so horribly wrong to make Gabriel do this. He had to know what had happened to them all to make them sink so low.

He'd not let his father have the satisfaction of ending him, and he wouldn't let Gabriel take his life like this. Not here, in the burning building that symbolized so much of their happiest memories. Not when he had to know _why, why Gabriel was doing this. Jack loved him so much, **why** was he doing this? Why was he destroying everything they had made together?_

That was all the reprieve he had as Gabriel and him re-opened fire, the treasured memories of the two of them protecting each other from omnics being ruined by the reality of him and Gabe fighting tooth and nail trying to get a one up on the other. Each punch they gave was blocked or dodged, the two of them knowing each other like the back of their own hands, able to predict each other's movements too well to land any more shots, both of them injured now.

Their guns clicked, and Jack cursed. They had both run out of bullets, and the only noise that deafened him now was the sound of their harsh breathing, and the sound of fire eating away at the base around them, at their memories and their dreams and their hopes and their _relationship_. Neither of them moved from their spots, and they both threw down their useless guns.

He watched now, as fire burned, the two of them both at the edge of their limits. Jack was bleeding in a few places, and Gabriel was bleeding in others. Whether the reason that he couldn't see clearly was the tears or the smoke, he didn't know. He didn't care.

This man had once seen the stars in his eyes, but now only stared at him like he was the devil himself.

"Gabriel, _why_? Why are you doing this?" Jack's angry words were hardly more than a sob now, and he limped from a broken ankle, hopping to maintain balance as he stared into Gabriel's remorseless eyes with hatred and sadness. "Why did you do this? Please- _please_ , we can, we can still get out of here. But we have to hurry, this place is coming down on us." He coughed. "Please, just tell me this wasn't you! _Please_ … I… I love-."

_I love you I miss you I need you please, please, Gabriel, I had so much I needed to say to you please, please..._

Gabriel was holding the trigger, and he set off the final explosion himself, his brown eyes cold with acceptance of what he was doing as he mouthed words that didn't register immediately in Jack.

He was unable to finish his sentence when the final blast deafened him, throwing him into the air, watching with quickly tunneling vision as the building started to collapse over where Gabriel had been standing amongst the flames, before he felt glass breaking behind him, and cold air rushing past him, before he felt nothing, and his world went black.

_Please don't let us end here, please._

XXXXX

The world felt unreal. Like he was the static in the television, the sound when the radio couldn't connect to the station. He forced his eyes open, to be met with darkness. He could vaguely make out some things, so he assumed it was nighttime.

He felt like a bus, or something else big and formidable had hit him. His head pounded, and swam with dizziness. He tried to sit up, only to have his face met with wet grass and dirty snow all over again. He gasped in pain, shivering suddenly.

How'd he wind up here? Must have been a heck of a fall to do all this to him. It felt like a fall, his body sore, but in relatively one piece- but he should by all means be dead, he knows that. But he must have been unconscious before he hit the ground.

"G-Gabriel?" He called out into the night, trying to stand once more, before he heard another explosion, and looked up, squinting his eyes, what felt like blood all over his body, sticky and scabbing. It was dark outside. He couldn't see anything above him, not even flashes of light in the night.

He heard airships, and the sound of debris still falling, and he suddenly remembered it all in clear focus- the very last thing that Gabriel Reyes had said to him practically a shout in the vacuum of his mind.

" _You deserve to die for everything you've destroyed, Jack. You did this. You destroyed us, destroyed your_ _ **beloved**_ _Overwatch. And for what? Your_ _ **pride**_ _."_

The shock of more debris crashing next to him drove him to start walking away, his body sore, aching, parts of him feeling unable to keep functioning, other parts entirely numb. But he wasn't going to die there. No. His body wouldn't be found at the base of all that he had tried to save.

At some point, his footsteps picked up, and he started to run. Perhaps if he ran far enough he would be free of this mess, he would wake up from this nightmare and be safe in Gabriel's arms.  He had done this.  The words of his father and Gabriel mixed and poisoned him further, all of his failures piling on top of each other and burying him underneath it.  He was rotting from the inside, and burning elsewhere.  

But the only relief he got came when he ran headfirst into a tree and passed out once again, black unconsciousness being the kindest thing he could be afforded any longer.

XXXXX

They'd put the words, "SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI" on his memorial. His candlelight vigil was the largest one attended in history. His funeral in Arlington was broadcast worldwide.

It was true in a sense. Jack Morrison's glory did pass that day. Along with his worldly possessions and relationships, Jack Morrison had left this world. And he was still seen as a fleeting beacon of hope even after all they had put him through. But his glory was only one of the things he'd lost to the fire. And perhaps it was the thing he had cared least for.

When he visited it, years later, he thought that the phrase _memento mori_ was more appropriate. Remember that you will die. He had thought that he and Gabriel had all the time in the world, and he had forgotten that everything fades eventually.  It had all come back in the end and destroy him.  Despite that, his fight went on.

He still needed answers, and he, Soldier 76, was going to get them one way or another. He wouldn't give in or die, not yet. Not when he knew those answers were out there. Not when he knew that Gabriel Reyes still breathed after all that he had done. And there wasn't even leftover anger. Just bitterness, the lingering taste of the love they had shared, once, the taste stuck in his mouth. It tasted like the blood he had swallowed, the words Jack Morrison never been able to say to Gabriel.

Perhaps his glory had faded, just like Jack Morrison. Soldier 76 wouldn't find himself unable to kill Reaper, where Jack had. Someone has to end him- and it would be him.  And that was because Soldier 76, much like Jack himself, wasn't one to remember to die.  

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in what happens afterwards, I would go read "our old bones rattle", and the prequel/kinda overlapping fic is "the freeway leads to the grave". Both of those fics are Mcreaper76, but I would really, truly give the threesome a try. If it helps at all, there is literally no mutual romance between McCree and either of them until he's almost 30, and before it's mostly Reaper76. 
> 
> I adore all of you for reading this, and i hope you enjoyed the angst? And most of all, I really do appreciate comments/kudos/critiques greatly, it helps me improve my writing and give you guys more of what you want.


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